FM for foreign investment in infra

Pitching for foreign investment in the infrastructure sector, which needs $1 trillion in the 12th five-year plan, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday asked the US investors to access the Indian debt market through a mechanism of regulated entities with a sustained long-term interest rate.

Pitching for foreign investment in the infrastructure sector, which needs $1 trillion in the 12th five-year plan, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday asked the US investors to access the Indian debt market through a mechanism of regulated entities with a sustained long-term interest rate.

Meeting leaders of Fortune 500 companies here, he assured them that India has evolved a transparent and stable regulatory regime in sectors such as electricity, telecommunications, ports, airports, petroleum and natural gas, and a regulator for the coal sector is on the anvil.He told them that India has recently liberalised foreign participation in the debt-equity market by allowing foreign investors to invest in the Indian equity directly.

Seeking a “greater degree of involvement” of foreign investors, Mukherjee said the “debt requirement for the infrastructure sector is very large.”

He said India had recently evolved a mechanism to enable access to the Indian debt market through infrastructure debt funds, which will be regulated entities with a sustained long-term interest rate, long horizon entities like pension and infrastructure and insurance funds.Those present at the meeting organised by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs (CCGA) included CCGA president Marshall Bouton; Stephen